Is this true?
For Democrats, the ramifications of the great sorting-out are mostly negative as there are three conservatives for every two liberals.
I guess I knew that self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals, but I'm also used to seeing numbers showing the Democratic Party to be larger than the Republican Party.
This is interesting, from Barone:
There has been a Great Sorting Out, with many people changing party identification, and the winners from this process have been the Republicans: Galston and Kamarck show that 38 percent of Republicans say they used to think of themselves as Democrats, while 22 percent–a substantially smaller number—of Democrats say they used to think of themselves as Republicans.
5 comments:
The Roe Effect and more generally Feminism has hurt Democrats.
In my observation, basic political attitudes are inherited. Those who choose not to breed pass on the chance to influence the next generation.
Family and Religion are the only two institutions capable of standing in opposition to Government. That is why the government-lovers on the left and right continually undermine both. The dimunition or abolition of Family and Religion is the stated aim of Communism for over a century. It is like a virus that if too virulent will kill the host population.
What can be done to create immunity?
Smart Parrot -- Welcome to our world!
I think what Offworld says is exactly correct. If you want to understand politics, forget rationality, forget stated positions. Forget "left" and "right". Much better determinants are family and religion. Most Jews view themselves as Democrats, particularly if their entire family experience in this country has been in NY or LA only, and that's one big reason why the Democrats continue to have so much support in those two areas, and in S. Florida. One big reason that this is changing is that the current thinly veiled anti-Israeli policy of the raucous wing of the Democratic party is causing a lot of cognitive dissonance among Jews who really want to remain Democrats but who also maintain a sense of self-preservation.
Self-identification as "liberal" or "conservative" doesn't mean much either. There was an article which addressed these very points in The Economist some months ago. Whereas more Americans who used to self-identify as "liberal" now self-identify as "conservative", at the same time support for key "liberal" issues like gay marriage or abortion rights is increasing. In other words, the very meaning of the words is changing.
David Thomson,
I think your statement is exactly correct. I was talking to a friend of mine just the other day who told me almost exactly what you are saying, that all we need to do is listen to people with true understanding and there will no longer be any threat from jihadis. He deeply believes this. It's a matter of faith for him. There Iis a fundamental split here on our views of what the world is really like. I'm certain that it's full of sharks and murderers. He's sure it's full of sweetness and light if you try hard enough.
Yeah, well some people are turned off by the idea that Religion and Family are The Way. If you ain't got Religion and your notion of Family is dysfunctional, it's all the liberals fault and you're doomed.
Believe it or not, there are liberals who do believe there are bad people on this earth. They just have unserious ideas about how to handle them.
And many of them do honestly care about a homeless man on the street and want to seriously know how a rising tide is going to help this specific man.
But yes, right now, the Democrats biggest problem is admitting there is a war and actually, er, fighting it.
The Democrats' biggest problem is believing their greatest enemy is George Bush and not some jihadi.
The Republicans' biggest problem is this bizarre and self destructive obsession with the Supreme Court.
But the whole idea of cosnervative and liberal is so subjective that I wonder if people would really agree on their definitions.
I identify myself a classical liberal. If we were fighting to preserve the republic, I would think of myself also as a conservative -- seeking to conserve what our ancestors have bequethed to us. However, I often feel like the republic is long gone and it would actually be a revolution of sorts to reestablish the kind of government that I would wish to leave to my progeny. It will not come about with a couple judicious supreme court appointments although this would seem to be the most promising, efficient and bloodless approach. I can understand why some self-identified conservatives are all riled up over the supreme court.
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